Friday, July 15, 2016

Top TV Moments: Brooke Bundy

In Gods Like Us, film critic Ty Burr examines the history of media stardom,
and why some actors become stars while others, for all their talent, remain
merely actors. The phenomenon dates back before 1910, a time when performers in
movies were un-credited but audiences noticed some of them anyway. Burr writes:
“You discovered that you wanted to see this person again, not because of the
part he or she played but because of who he or she was.”

That is how I have always
felt about Brooke Bundy.

Why? I don’t know. Why are
any of us drawn to certain actors or singers or comedians more than others? There
is a quality in her that resonates with me, and I have no desire to subject
that condition to deeper analysis. What would be the point? I just like Brooke
Bundy.

I hope to see all of her
television performances one day, though that’s likely impossible given her guest
appearances on obscure 1960s series like Firehouse
and My Friend Tony. The ones listed here I’ve seen many times. In fact I could have written this
tribute from memory, but I went back and watched them all again because I can
never spend enough time in her company.

The Donna Reed Show (1962)

In “To Be a Boy,” Jeff
swears off girls just before Mary tries to introduce him to high-IQ introvert
Joanne, played by Bundy as her first professional acting credit. The highlight
is an extended scene where Joanne hides under Jeff’s bed. It’s played mostly in
silence but Bundy’s expressions are captivating.

Mr. Novak (1963)

This is one of my favorite
forgotten shows of the 1960s. James Franciscus plays an idealistic high school
English teacher in a forerunner to Room
222, albeit without the ethnic diversity. Bundy makes the first of three
series appearances in “X is the Unknown Factor” as Patrice, girlfriend to a
brilliant but amoral student. With Franciscus, Dean Jagger as the principal,
and guest stars like Ed Asner, Kim Darby, Kevin McCarthy and silent screen
legend Lillian Gish, the acting bar was set very high throughout this series. Bundy
more than holds her own in a scene where she confesses to cheating on a test to
save her boyfriend from risking his scholarship.

Gidget (1965)

If you took my suggestion
in last week’s blog about a summer Gidget
marathon, you already encountered Brooke Bundy as Inge, a demure Swedish
student engaged to a domineering young executive (played by a pre-Star Trek Walter Koenig). In “Gidget’s
Foreign Policy,” Gidget vows to liberate her repressed houseguest before her
husband-to-be returns in one week. Inge learns her lesson so well that she
steals Gidget’s boyfriend and calls off her wedding.

Dragnet (1967)

It’s a tough segue from a
lighthearted sitcom like Gidget to
“The Little Victim,” a grim story about child abuse. Brooke Bundy plays the
insecure, damaged young wife of an abusive husband. Her frightened, intense
outbursts punctuate several powerful scenes, and the conclusion is almost too
difficult to watch.

Daniel Boone (1968)

I can’t say I’m a huge fan
of this series, but Bundy’s appearance in “Be Thankful for the Fickleness of
Women” is one of my favorites of her performances. She plays Sarah, an
indentured servant that Josh (Jimmy Dean) purchases so he can protect her from an
abusive lout. But once he owns Sarah, he has no idea what to do with her.

Mission: Impossible (1969)

“The Controllers” is a
two-part M:I episode, something I’ve already asserted the series does not do well. The team must put a stop to experiments with a dangerous mind control
drug being conducted behind the Iron Curtain. Bundy plays Katherine, a prisoner
subjected to the treatment. She doesn’t do much more than suffer through these
two episodes, but like Garbo she does it memorably.

My Three Sons (1971)

Brooke Bundy made four
appearances on this long-running sitcom, ranging from 1963’s “Robbie Wins His
Letter” to “Debbie” in 1971. The last one is my favorite because she rarely
ventures into Tuesday Weld territory – a flirty blonde using her wiles to get
out of trouble. In “Debbie” she turns the heads of all the Douglas men, though
Ernie is particularly smitten.

The Partridge Family (1973)

Keith Partridge shares my
Brooke Bundy infatuation. In “Heartbreak Keith” he falls hard for college
classmate Dory, an “older woman” of 23. He mistakenly believes she loves him
too – and then finds out she’s married.

The episode is worth watching not just for Bundy’s
performance as Dory but for the unique set design of her character’s home –
it’s like the entire ‘70s exploded in one room. The episode also features one
of the best fourth season Partridge tunes, “I Heard You Singing Your Song.”

The Brady Bunch (1974)

“Kelly’s Kids” is an
episode most fans skip because the Bradys are hardly in it. Ken Berry and
Brooke Bundy play Brady neighbors Ken and Kathy Kelly, who adopt one son from
an orphanage, then go back to adopt his two best friends – one is
African-American, the other is Asian. The show was a spinoff attempt written by
Sherwood Schwartz, trying to recreate his Brady
success with another variation of a blended family (The Benetton Brood?). Berry and Bundy are eminently likable, but I’m
not sure the series would have lasted.

Land of the Lost (1975)

In a misty marsh, Rick and Will
find the remnants of a strange spacecraft out of which appears Brooke Bundy (in
a most unfortunate hairstyle) as Sharon, a woman who claims to have lost her
way. Rick takes a liking to her, but Will and Holly suspect there is more to
Sharon’s story. “The Zarn” is typically trippy Krofft fun, with a bizarre
ending that baffles as much as it impresses.

Charlie’s Angels (1977)

In “The Vegas Connection,”
one of the better first season shows, the Angels bring down a blackmailer
working out of a Vegas casino showroom. Sixteen years ago, I wrote this in The Charlie’s Angels Casebook: “As
Elsbeth, a tough girl with a soft heart who helps the Angels…Brooke Bundy contributes
one of the most memorable single-episode guest appearances of the series’ run.
Her introduction as a potential love interest for Bosley could have been
explored further, perhaps in a subsequent episode.” I still wish they had gone
there.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Twenty-five years after her
TV debut, and just four years before she left the business to become an acting
teacher, Brooke Bundy served on the Starship Enterprise. In “The Naked Now,”
the crew falls under the influence of a virus that causes everyone to act drunk
and silly. A good idea but one better saved for a later show (this was just the
second episode broadcast): if viewers had been given time to get to know these
characters, it would have been more fun to watch how their behavior changes. Also,
Wesley saves the ship, setting an unwelcome precedent for future stories.

5 comments:

It is worth noting that Brooke Bundy had roles on "Days of our Lives" and "General Hospital." On the latter soap, she played a registered nurse known as Diana Maynard Taylor.

I like one-piece, solid-color swimsuits with modesty panels like the one Ms. Bundy is wearing in that one "Gidget"-related pic. It's my understanding that Brooke wore a wetsuit for an episode of the short-lived syndicated series "Primus." In said episode (entitled "Death Tide"), Brooke played a young environmental activist who stole the titular hero's submersible.

BTW, is the hairdo Ms. Bundy is wearing in that "Land of the Lost"-related pic much worse than the one Martha Smith wore for "National Lampoon's Animal House"?

"Kelly's Kids" did eventually become a series 12 years after this backdoor pilot. It was called TOGETHER WE STAND and starred Elliott Gould & Dee Wallace as a couple who adopt an Asian boy & black girl to add to their family of two children, one of them adopted. The show was retooled later, killing off Gould's character and renaming it NOTHING IS EASY.